Intense in the sauna heat
Relaxed Intense in the sauna heat Thinking of my virtues Boastful And then he approaches And opens the door Slowly emerging into the space Hairs up on my arms Alert This man, hunched and rotund Legs pink and purple Drool hanging from his lips Slowly turns and collapses onto the bench Disgust I feel it through my body These two handsome men To my left and right Surely they feel it too Minutes pass In uncomfortable silence And then they leave Don’t leave me I plead silently Not with him There is no lightness in him Am I unsafe Am I sensing something Perhaps he’s a child molestor How else do you end up like this And then he mumbles something Come back to my centre I breathe into the belly And I ask if he’s had a workout He said he just comes to the sauna Because his body is broken Is that so? And piece by piece The truth falls out His career in the army The accident And a collision when he left His doctors didn’t think he would survive That his legs had to go But he refused And pushed for an operation So for months he was in hospital In daily agony The nurses became his family But he survived And every day he’s grateful Even if people don’t believe it Divine intervention he says And I wonder What it was That brought us here today